The New Cumberland boy sampled all of them Thursday while participating in the "Special Kids Rodeo" on the sixth day of the Pennsylvania State Farm Show.

The rodeo in the Large Arena allowed about 30 mentally challenged people "to be champions for a day, something they will never forget," said David Murat, spokesman for First Frontier ProRodeo Circuit of Woodstown, N.J., which sponsored the rodeo along with Skills of Central Pennsylvania of Bellefonte.

As the guests, mostly in wheelchairs, entered the Large Arena, they were given cowboy hats and kerchiefs. Then, cowboys and cowgirls escorted them through simulated rodeo activities. They also cheered for the guests and occasionally wiped tears from their own eyes.

Tina, in her 40s, laughed heartily when she saw a bull, in person, for the first time. She declined the chance to mount it. Eric, another adult guest, roped a dummy steer with the help of a cowboy. A blind woman in her 50s petted a pony named Velvet, grinning when she felt the animal's breath on her hand.

Ben Fowler, 10, had the biggest smile of the day.

When two cowboys helped him mount a pony, then walked beside him as he rode, Fowler's smile seemed bright enough to light the arena. That smile continued when he sat in a saddle atop Redbull, a 1,500-pound Texas longhorn bull owed by Randy Ridgeley of Wyoming, Del.

Chris Fetterman, a spokeswoman for Skills of Central Pennsylvania group home in New Oxford, said the rodeo gave her clients "a different day of joy, something they haven't experienced before. We sure appreciate the rodeo people doing this for us."

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